


Need To Have a Little Trust in Me

by 7_Magpies



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe: Supernatural Elements, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Humor, Idiots in Love, M/M, vampire!Shane Madej
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7_Magpies/pseuds/7_Magpies
Summary: Shane’s been wanting to tell Ryan something about himself. One location might force him to.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej, Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 16
Kudos: 130
Collections: Skeptic Believer Book Club Hallowe'en Fic Exchange 2020





	Need To Have a Little Trust in Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [8BitSkeleton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/8BitSkeleton/gifts).



> Here you go my friend! I hope you enjoy! This was a fun prompt!
> 
> Title from “Where the Lonely Ones Roam” by Digital Daggers

“Really? You believe in demons and ghosts and shit, but not witches?”

Ryan shrugged, looking around the darkness outside the house with his flashlight. “I just don’t believe humans can have that kind of power, I guess.”

“So we’re in agreement that this is bullshit? What are we even doing here then, Ryan?”

“We’ve not done a witchcraft episode since the Salem Witch Trials, and that was really more for the ghosts of those killed. I just thought it’d be nice to bring in a bit of variety. Besides, it’s snowing, aren’t you happy?”

Shane scoffed as he looked around the forest they were standing deep inside of, and then up at the wooden house. “Yeah. Standing in a forest in front of an old-ass house late at night when I could be home in bed. ‘Happy’ is definitely the word that comes to mind.”

“Scared?”

“No, but that house doesn’t look like it has heating, does it?”

Ryan gave a long-suffering sigh. “This won’t take too long, I’m sure. I’m not expecting to see much here. Let’s just let them finish setting up, then walk through the house, make a few bits, then get back to the hotel and get some hot chocolate.”

Shane shrugged, looking at the windows of the old house for any sign of their crew walking around. “I’m just going on the record and saying I don’t like this place very much.” 

“Noted. Now, shut up.”

After a few minutes, TJ stuck his head out. “We’re ready for you guys.”

“Seriously, though,” Shane said as they walked towards the building. “Don’t we have enough from us walking around the forest?”

“What’s your problem, dude?”

“Nothing. Never mind. Let’s just get this over with.”

Ryan nodded, still watching Shane out of the corner of his eye as they climbed the porch stairs. He was being weird. Weirder than usual, even. Usually his strangeness wasn’t quite to this extent. His eccentricities was often kind of charming, if Ryan were to be honest with himself. He wasn’t in the habit of that, though. At least, not when it came to thinking about Shane.

The house wasn’t very interesting. The most exciting moment came when a mouse ran across the floor in front of Ryan, causing him to yell in a less-than-dignified manner. Of course, after a few years of Unsolved, he figured he didn’t have much dignity left, anyways. Most of the footage was going to end up being them making jokes. Which would have been fine, except that none of the bits seemed quite right. Shane was still being weird, not responding to Ryan as quickly as usual, and often not even on the same page as him. Ryan tried to ignore it, though, and treat it like all the other locations. He felt like he did pretty well, too. 

Until the end, at least.

The crew went to start packing up the equipment while Shane and Ryan were going to do their individual investigation, so that as soon as they finished they could get out of the cold. The room they were investigating was where the witches practiced most of their craft, and where they had stored the grimoire. 

“Was it marked on the floor plan?” Shane asked.

“What?”

“How did you know where they kept the grimoire? Did you find a map online of the floorplan with a little arrow pointing to this room that said ‘great place to keep your spell books’?”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “I dunno, okay, I’m just telling you what the research team told me. Get off my back about it. You go first.”

Shane shrugged and stepped inside.

Except, not really. His foot couldn’t seem to get through the doorway.

“Shane, cut it out and get your ass in there so we can  _ leave. _ ”

“I can’t help it. I can’t go in.”

Ryan sighed. “Whatever. Look, I’m cold, so let’s _ please  _ hurry this up.”

“You don’t understand - I can’t step in here.” He backed away from the door and turned to Ryan.

“Whatever, I’ll go first, asshole.” Shane started to say something, but Ryan pushed past him. He stepped through the doorway without a problem and looked around. “Looks surprisingly like every other room in this house,” he said as he looked. “Wait, what’s this?” He moved closer to the wall, which had a large white drawing on it. He couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be, but it was obviously not part of the wall. It looked like chalk. He put a finger out to touch it when he heard Shane.

“No! Don’t touch it!”

Ryan furrowed his brow and looked at Shane. “What?”

“It’s a protection sigil. It’s to keep out any beings they didn’t want entering this room. If you touch it, it probably won’t be good.” His voice and face were serious, but the words were so ridiculous, that Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” He touched the drawing -

\- and felt a shock run through his arm, throwing him back a yard, where he landed flat on his back, knocking the air out of him. He lay there for a moment, trying to catch his breath again, before sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. “What - I - what the fuck?” 

“Are you okay?” He turned and saw Shane trying to push into the room but not able to pass through the doorway. 

“Shane, what in the  _ hell _ is going on here? What’s that thing? Why can’t you come in here? What’s happening?” He knew his voice was growing more frantic as he spoke, but he couldn’t bring himself to care very much. Whatever was happening, it was  _ wrong. _

“We have to get out of here, I don’t know what other protections there will be in here.” As he spoke, Ryan heard a strange rumbling noise. He looked over his shoulder to see the dust rising from the floorboards, making a vaguely human-shaped figure. 

Ryan scrambled to his feet, watching as the dust-creature took form. He ran out of the room, accidentally barreling into Shane. He grabbed onto his friend, watching as the dust-figure rushed towards them. He was about to scream, knowing it was about to hit him, when it reached the doorway and… vanished. The dust lost its form and fell back to the floorboards. 

Ryan breathes a sigh of relief, practically going boneless against Shane. “What the fuck?”

He realized there were arms around him. “It’s okay, Ryan. It’s gone.”

“What was that thing?” 

“Protection. Let’s leave, okay?” 

Ryan looked up and realized that he and Shane were hugging, and his face was buried in the soft fabric of Shane’s hoodie. He pulled back a little ways. “Right. We should go. We have to tell the crew.” He ran down the stairs, but Shane moved faster than he had ever seen him, and practically appeared beside him, grabbing his arm before he could get out the front door.

“No, Ryan, can we not tell the crew about what happened?”

“What? Shane, this is the first  _ actual evidence _ we’ve ever gotten on camera!”

Shane sighed and ran a hand over his face. “I know, I know, but please. At least, not until after I tell you what I have to tell you. Then, if you still want them to know, you can tell them. But for right now, let’s just say we saw a spider or something and didn’t want to do the investigations. Please?” 

Ryan wasn’t in the habit of giving in to Shane. There were years worth of footage proving that fact. But Shane was looking at him with an expression with so much anxiety in it, Ryan couldn’t help it. 

He sighed. “Okay. Until you tell me whatever you’ve gotta say. Let’s just go. I’m pretty damn freaked out.”

Shane let out a relieved breath. “Thank you.” 

They left the house and went down the porch chairs to the rental van. “What’s going on? We heard a loud thud come from up there,” TJ said when they joined him.

“Ryan saw a spider,” Shane said.

At the same time, Ryan said “Shane saw a spider.”

They looked at each other for a moment. “I mean,” Ryan started, “we both saw a spider. Big, big spider.”

Shane held his hands up about six inches apart. “Big. Big spider. Island of the Dolls all over again.”

Ryan scrambled to come up with what to say, while fighting down the panic from what he actually saw. “It scared Shane, and he tripped me, and I fell. It was embarrassing, but I don’t think we got any footage of it. I can go through the camera, though, and check. But it was dark.”

“The cameras are night vision, Ry,” TJ pointed out.

“Right. Well, I mean, we were bumping into each other, so there’s probably not much on the camera.”

Their friend just rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Okay. I take it you don’t want to stay here for the individual investigations?”

“Nope,” they said in unison. 

“Got enough from the woods earlier tonight,” Shane started. 

“And the house,” Ryan added.

TJ just sighed. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s get back to the hotel.”

“Awesome.”

“Sounds great. Let’s go.”

They climbed into the van, and Ryan thought he heard TJ saying something along the lines of “what am I doing with my life?” 

\-----

When they got to the hotel, Shane and Ryan went to their room pretty quickly, not talking to the crew very much. Once they walked into their shared room, Ryan closed the door and spun to face Shane. “Okay, talk. What the hell was all that? Why did you make me lie to TJ? I don’t like tricking the crew,  _ or _ the viewers.” He ran a hand through his hair and started pacing. “Why did we even leave in the first place? How did I let you talk me into leaving? We’ve never gotten that much evidence, we should have stayed to get more! We’ve got to go back!”

Shane stood in front of him and placed his hands on his shoulders, stopping him in his pacing. “Ryan. You were scared, you didn’t want to stay there. Let me tell you what I have to tell you, then if you still want to go back, we can tomorrow morning before we fly home. Just, let me talk, okay?”

Ryan nodded slowly, looking up at his friend. He was good at reading Shane’s expressions. This one, though, was hard to pin down exactly. He kind of looked nervous, which was strange in and of itself. But he also looked tired. Not in a need-a-nap kind of way. It seemed deeper than that. “What’s going on?”

Shane stepped back from Ryan and walked away a few steps, wringing his hands together. “I don’t really know how to tell you this.”

“Just spit it out, Shane, you’re being really weird.” 

Finally Shane stopped and turned back to Ryan. “That sigil? It was real. That house really had witches in it. I didn’t know how powerful they were until we got there and I couldn’t enter the room and then that dust creature appeared. It was made to attack anyone that tried to tamper with the protections.”

“Why could you not enter the room, but I could?” Ryan asked, confused. “I mean, yeah, obviously I was mistaken and witches are real and that sigil was real - it threw me across the room and then sicced me with the dust bunny from hell - but why did it not let you in?”

“Because I’m one of the creatures it was created against.”

Ryan shook his head, watching Shane’s face closely for any sign he was trying to trick him. He looked completely serious, though, and it was almost frightening how intense his eyes were. 

“What… what do you mean, Shane?”

“I’m what you would call a ‘vampire.’ A lot of the myths that come along with vampirism are false, but my race is what it was based on.”

“No. No, no, no. That’s not possible. How in the hell are you a vampire? Vampires aren’t real.” He felt himself growing slightly frantic as he spoke.

“I can prove it. Do you trust me?”

“I don’t fucking know, Shane, you’re saying some really crazy shit right now.”

“I know, but I need you to believe me. I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I promise. I just need to show you this.” 

Ryan stood silent for a moment, looking up at his friend. He was scared of whatever was going on, but he could tell Shane was, too. So, he nodded. “Yeah. Okay. I trust you.”

Shane stepped closer to Ryan and bared his teeth. As he watched, Shane’s canines extended by a couple centimeters each.

“Holy  _ shit. _ ” He stepped forward to get a closer look. “Dude, what the hell? That’s so weird.”

As he watched, they shrank back down to their normal size. “Believe me now?”

“I don’t… I don’t even know what I think anymore. This is a lot.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed his tired eyes. “I mean, one minute we’re in an old-ass house and I’m sure that ghosts and demons are real but witches and vampires are bullshit, and the next it turns out my best friend is a damned vampire and some witches threw me across the room with a chalk drawing from hell.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s a lot for me, too. I’ve not really had to tell anyone in a long time.” He sat on the other bed, facing Ryan.

He thought for a moment, trying to wrap his head around everything. “This is all a prank, right?

Shane groaned, burying his face in his hands for a second. “No, Ryan, this is real, okay? The teeth are  _ real. _ The force keeping me from entering that room and that threw you when you tried to tamper with it and that created the dust creature? That was real.”

“I don’t understand how - how is that even possible?”

Shane stood up suddenly and sat on the bed beside Ryan, grabbing his hand. Ryan jumped a little bit at how fast he moved. Shane moved his hand and pressed it against his chest, and Ryan looked up at him, confused. “What are you doing?”

“Feel it?”

“Feel what? I don’t feel… holy  _ shit. _ ” He pressed his hand flat against Shane’s chest. Nothing. No heartbeat. “Take off your hoodie.”

Shane didn’t even argue, simply rolled his eyes and pulled off the hoodie as Ryan asked. Ryan pressed a hand to his chest again, where his heartbeat should be. Nothing. 

“What the… no, no, no. This isn’t possible.”

“It is.”

“You’re a fucking vampire? How is that…” he trailed off, trying to think of what to ask. The first thing that came to mind wasn’t something he was exactly proud of, but it was a starting place. “But I’ve seen you in the sun.”

Shane sighed. “The sun doesn’t kill us. I don’t exactly  _ love _ sitting out in the sun, that’s why i always wear so many layers all the time, but the whole ‘sun kills vampires’ is an extreme exaggeration.”

“But… You have a reflection. And you show up on cameras.”

“Those come from when there was silver in mirrors and in the filmmaking process. It’s not anymore. I have a reflection in modern mirrors, and since there’s no way for silver to be used in the digital photo process, I show up fine there. Like I said, lots of myths. Very few of them are true.”

Ryan shook his head again. “This is so weird.” He looked down to see his hand was still pressed against Shane’s chest. 

Shane nodded. “Yeah. I can make my heart beat if I choose to, but it’s hard and I can’t keep it up for very long. I tend not to unless someone’s about to check for it.”

He took his hands away from Shane’s chest slowly. “I don’t know what to say. This is bizarre.”

“Just… please don’t tell anyone. If you don’t want to work together anymore, I completely understand, but  _ please _ , it could be so bad if word got out that we exist.” 

Ryan nodded. “Yeah. No. I won’t tell anyone. How long have you been like this?”

“Since the sixties.”

“I just… I can’t believe you’ve been a vampire this whole time. You’re not gonna, like, want to suck my blood more now that I know what you are, right?”

“No! Goodness, no. I would never. Yeah, I need blood, but I usually use animals. Sometimes we get some from local blood banks when it’s about to expire, but I never use humans.”

Ryan sighed. “Okay, I feel a little better now. When you say ‘we,’ though…” He trailed off, trying to decide how to phrase his question. Luckily, Shane was on the same page as him again.

“Not a lot, about a couple hundred. We usually stick together in groups, create family units. My parents aren’t really my parents. They’re vampires, too. Some of us get jobs at blood banks, like I said, for the about-to-expire blood. Some of us are good at forging documents and photos. It’s a whole community, really.”

“That’s… this is just so weird.” Ryan was still trying to wrap his head around everything Shane was saying. His best friend, the man he had developing feelings for, was a vampire. When Ryan woke up that morning, learning Shane wasn’t human was probably the last thing he expected would happen. 

“So you’ve said.”

“Sorry, I just don’t really know what else to say.”

“Please… just… tell me you aren’t mad at me.” Shane wasn’t quite meeting his gaze, and he was worrying his lower lip with his teeth. 

“I mean, I guess I understand that you’re not very open about it. It would be kind of selfish of me to think you’d tell me this on your own, right?”

“No, no, it’s not like that. I wanted to tell you. But if you were to react badly, I wouldn’t just be risking myself. I’d be putting all of my friends in danger. I trust you, and I wanted you to know, but that was a risk I couldn’t let myself make.”

Ryan nodded. It made sense, but it also flattered him to hear that Shane had wanted him to know. He tried to shake that thought loose from his mind, though. “Okay. I mean, you’re just the same person I’ve always known, I just didn’t know everything.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” 

“So you said you were turned in the sixties. You were born in, what, the thirties?”

“Yeah. Shane Madej is my birth name, but I wasn’t born in Illinois. I actually came from New York, I just moved a few years after I was turned and more or less adopted Illinois as my home. The whole thing is weird because I’m the same age as, like, people in nursing homes. I just still look thirty.” 

“I guess that would be strange. I just… I’m still freaking out a little bit on the inside, y’know?”

“Understandable.”

“That house we were at, why didn’t you like it if you didn’t know about the weird drawing upstairs?”

Shane shrugged. “It felt weird. I could tell there was something in there made to keep me out, but I didn’t know how strong it was until we got there. I knew witchcraft had been practiced in there, I can sense magic like that. I just didn’t realize how strong it was, since it was so long ago. The magic mostly faded with time, but sigils like that keep their power. No one can remove it except for a powerful witch or the one that created it. That’s why when you touched it you got thrown back so powerfully, and it created a dust-creature to attack you. It was protecting itself.”

He nodded slowly, taking in Shane’s words. “I feel like I’ve got my head wrapped around it, but also I feel like I’m gonna break down any time now with a panic attack,” Ryan muttered. 

“Understandable,” Shane responded with a nervous chuckle. 

“I just… I really don’t know what to do now.”

“I know. I’m sorry to put you in this situation. I just had to tell you finally.”

That admission felt like something more. Ryan just couldn’t put his finger on what it was, exactly. “It’s alright. This is weird for you too. It must be.”

The corner of his lips turned up in a nervous smirk. “It really is. Like I said, I haven’t really told many people this. Whenever I pictured telling you about it, I thought I’d be cool about it, y’know?” 

“You pictured… you thought about telling me this?”

“Like I said, I wanted you to know.”

Ryan looked at him, hoping his expression would give something away, but it didn’t. “Why?”

“Because… you’re my friend, of course.” He shrugged, looking down at his hands. His speech was halting, as though he was making sure he wasn’t about to say too much. 

He didn’t respond, just watched Shane, waiting for him to say more. It took a long moment before Shane looked back up at him. “What?”

“There’s something you’re not telling me. Come on, you’ve told me you’re not human, you can tell me whatever else is on your mind.”

Shane opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again, biting his lip. He seemed to think over what he was going to say for some time before talking again. “I’m not sure I can, Ryan. Not tonight. Not after all of this. Just trust me, please?”

And so, Ryan found himself giving into Shane again. He nodded reluctantly. “Okay. I won’t. Whatever it is, we can talk about it another time.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. We should probably go to sleep, it’s been a long day.”

Shane looked up at him with an expression that seemed sad, and almost scared. “You’re gonna be able to sleep in the same room as me, knowing what I am?”

“I’ve survived your snoring this long, and I trust that you’re not gonna bite me. You’re still Shane, even if it turns out there’s more to you than I realized.”

“You know, I never expected you to be this calm about this.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m probably going to have a panic attack about it tomorrow. Until then, I’m going to sleep while I can and let future-Ryan deal with that.”

Shane chuckled, and his body seemed to relax for the first time since they showed up at the witch’s hut earlier that evening. “Fair enough.”

\-----

The next two days were fairly normal, and that felt weird to Ryan. He thought that after such a life-changing admission from Shane, that there would be something  _ different _ about them. Instead, he found himself completely forgetting about Shane’s true identity as they went back to work. They went right back to joking with each other, and teasing each other. Sometimes Ryan would watch for some hint as to Shane being a vampire. He never found it though. Shane was just… Shane. The panic attack he was afraid of never came. 

He searched for new locations with reports of witchcraft, hoping to find a new place to go where they might find similar residual magic and be more prepared. He made a list and sent it to the research team, and then got to work going through the recordings from the witch hut.

The third day after they got back from filming, Ryan finished going through the footage. He managed to delete all of the recordings from when they went upstairs before passing it along to editing. He went to the breakroom to grab a drink afterwards, and bumped into TJ.

“Hey, I just finished going through the footage from that witch hut,” Ryan said. “Got it sent on to editing. They’re gonna have their work cut out for them, though, it was pretty damn boring.”

“Except whatever happened upstairs,” TJ replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, I mean, I just went ahead and cut that. It’s practically unusable,” he said with a shrug.

“Mm-hm. Look, Ryan, you know you’re a terrible liar, right?”

“I…” he tried to think of what to say, but he couldn’t think of any words. He stuttered for a moment before TJ spoke again.

“If you and Shane are a thing, that’s fine, I promise. Just don’t ever try to spin a tale about spiders again, that was embarrassing to watch, honestly.”

Ryan nodded, relieved. “Right. Yeah. Wait - when you say ‘a thing,’ what exactly do you…”

“You two were being really weird - well, weirder than usual. Then you went straight to your hotel room when we got back and barely talked to the rest of us. Not to mention you were joined at the hip on the way back the next day. More than usual, even.” He shrugged. “Good for you guys, and thanks for trying to keep it professional around the office. But maybe you should both chill with the cow eyes across the room, it’s distracting.” With that, TJ turned and left Ryan with more questions.

\-----

“He thinks we’re a couple?” Shane asked, sitting on Ryan’s couch that night. Ryan had invited him over because they hadn’t had time to talk since that trip, and to discuss what TJ had said.

“Yeah,” he replied around a bite of delivery pizza. 

“That’s… weird.”

“I guess. But…” he trailed off, putting his plate down on the coffee table.

“But… what?” 

“Never mind.” He stood and walked to the kitchen to put the leftovers in the fridge. “You’re sure you don’t want any?”

“Like I said, I don’t need to eat. I mostly just do it to look normal, and there’s not really any need to.”

“Don’t you miss it?”

He shrugged. “I can’t really taste as much anymore for whatever reason. I kind of miss food, but I don’t honestly remember what a lot of it is supposed to taste like enough to be really sad about it.”

“I guess that makes sense. It’s kind of sad though, isn’t it?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

Ryan sat back on the couch and kicked his feet up on the coffee table next to where Shane’s were propped. 

“You know, you’re still a lot more relaxed around me than I would have expected.”

“Thanks? I think?”

“You know what I mean,” he insisted, swatting Ryan’s arm lightly. You screamed like a little girl at a  _ flashlight. _ ”

“Hey!”

“Oh, right, sorry, that was offensive. To little girls.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Shane.”

“You know what I mean. You’re not exactly known for being Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected. You’ve kind of built a career on it. How are you so okay with this,” he asked, gesturing to himself. 

“I mean, if I were to freak out, what would that do? I know you’ll tell me everything I need to know. I still trust you, and you’re still my best friend. Everything else is just… extraneous.”

“I guess that makes sense. I really appreciate it, though.”

“You do?”

Shane laughed. “Well, yeah,” he said in his patented  _ obviously, Ryan _ tone. “If I were to tell you this big secret and then you flipped and didn’t want to be friends… That would be hard on me.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Ryan. You’re my friend and I care about you. I’ve said as much on camera.” He smiled a little bit. “I do have feelings, y’know?”

“I know you do, big guy. You have them and they’re yours, even if you can be kind of shit at showing them.”

“I know I am. And I should be better at it by now.” He stopped for a moment and pulled his feet off the coffee table, sitting up on the couch.

“Shane? What’s up?”

“I just… I feel like I should tell you something. I’m just not really sure how, or what will happen afterwards.”

Ryan pulled his feet down, too, and mirrored Shane’s position. “Is it what you were going to say the other night?”

“Yeah. Look, Ryan, I…” He stopped and took a breath, looking down, away from Ryan’s eyes. He looked a lot like the night he told Ryan who he really was, and it made Ryan’s heart start to race with the anxiety he started to feel.

“Just go ahead and spit it out, man.”

“Like I said, I have feelings. I have them, and they’re mine. But I have some for you, and I know I shouldn’t, you’re my friend and coworker and business partner and a dozen other things that this could jeopardize. I just… I wanted you to know. I can leave now if you want-”   
  


“No!” Ryan grabbed Shane’s forearm as he started to stand, keeping him on the couch. “Don’t go. Okay?”

He nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Ryan let go of Shane and took a deep breath. “I do, too. I have feelings for you. I have for a while. I didn’t think you felt the same.”

“Oh.” Shane’s eyes were open wide and he looked so taken aback that Ryan couldn’t help but laugh. 

“What’s wrong?”

“I just - I never thought you’d feel the same way.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and put a hand on Shane’s. “I do. I don’t care what you are.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah, really, you idiot.”

Shane looked down at their hands and back up at Ryan. “I wasn’t really expecting this.”

“Obviously. Now stop being awkward and kiss me, please.”

Smiling, Shane obliged. 

\-----

It was a weird week, to say the least. Ryan started it with Shane as his normal, human best friend, and ended it with him as his vampire boyfriend. It was weird. But he didn’t really mind.

Similar to how nothing really changed when Ryan knew about Shane, not a lot was different once they started dating. Falling into a relationship with Shane was so much easier than he could ever imagine. It felt like the next logical step, and like something new and exciting all at once. Their interactions felt the same, but with the added bonus of kissing and holding hands. They moved slow, afraid of messing anything up. It didn’t feel like there was anything to mess up, though. They had always fit together like puzzle pieces. This was just another way for that to happen.

Some nights, Shane would tell Ryan stories about the things he had seen. Ryan always loved Shane’s voice, especially when he was telling stories. These nights they would sit on the couch, and Ryan would curl up with his head on Shane’s lap. Shane’s fingers would sometimes find his hair and comb through it absently. Other times, they would simply rest on his hip or waist. He had a lot of good stories that he’d tell some nights. On other nights, Ryan would come up with a question, like if vampires being real meant that ghosts are, too. 

“I don’t know, I mean, vampires are physical, obviously,” he tugged lightly on Ryan’s hair as though to prove his point, and Ryan grunted in protest. “We don’t exactly hang in the same circles,” he continued. “The whole ‘are ghosts real?’ debate is very similar among us as it is among humans. You’ll never guess which side I fall on.”

Ryan laughed softly, eyes closed as Shane’s hand carded through his hair. 

“You look comfy.”

“I am.”

They sat in silence for a little while, Ryan’s breathing and the noise of Shane’s hand in his hair the only sounds to break it. 

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Ryan spoke up. “How scared were you when you first turned?”

Shane’s hand stilled. “I… why do you ask?”

“I just wondered. That must have been terrifying.”

He didn’t speak for a moment, but eventually his hand started to move again. “I was scared. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I don’t have very good memories of it, just flashes. I’ve tried to block it from my mind. Not exactly a happy recollection,” he noted with a humorless laugh.

Ryan reached up for Shane’s other hand and pulled it to him, holding it between his hands. “I’m sorry. Did you have anyone to talk to?”

“Not at first. Other vampires found me soon and took me in, explained what happened. They answered my questions and helped me deal with my panic attack.”

“At least you had people help you. That’s good. I’d hate it if you were completely alone.”

Shane was quiet for a moment. “One of the questions I asked was if we still feel love. It was dumb, I know.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Shane laughed gently. “I just didn’t really believe them when they said yes.”

“Now?” He sat up and leaned against Shane’s shoulder, pressing his body along the side of his boyfriend’s.

“Now, I know they were telling the truth. Being a monster… it doesn’t really matter. Not as long as I’ve got you.”

Ryan felt himself blush and he covered his face with his hands. “Ugh, stop being such a softie.”

“Hey, this is a very rare occurrence. Enjoy it.”

Moving his hands down, Ryan pushed himself up and kissed Shane on the cheek. “I do. I’m just also embarrassed for us both. You’re so damn cheesy.”

“You love it,” he replied with a smirk.

“Shut up, Shane.” Ryan said, pulling him into a long kiss.


End file.
